Collapsible chair

ABSTRACT

A collapsible chair is described, comprising a carrying frame which receives a covering ( 4 ) for a hood-like windshield and is made of support frames ( 1 ) mutually swivelable between a storage position and a sitting position and forming a foot part ( 1 ). In order to provide advantageous constructional conditions it is proposed that the frame structure comprises at least four support frames ( 1 ) whose frame planes extending transversally to the base intersect each other in the region of a central axis ( 5 ), that the support frames ( 1 ) form a tensioning bracket ( 3, 3   a ) for the covering ( 4 ) starting from the outside of the foot part ( 2 ), which bracket acts upon two directly adjacent tensioning brackets ( 3   a ) releasing an access opening ( 10 ) between themselves, and that the foot parts ( 2 ) and tensioning brackets ( 3, 3   a ) are linked to each other in the region of the central axis ( 5 ).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a collapsible chair, comprising a carrying frame which receives a covering for a hood-like windshield and is made of support frames mutually swivelable from a storage position to a sitting position and forming a foot part.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In order to provide a collapsible chair with a hood-like windshield, it is known (DE 100 03 663 C2) to provide a support frame which is substantially composed of two framed structures which are connected with each other in a scissor-like manner by a pivoting axle parallel to the base and carry a length of fabric forming a seat and a backrest between themselves. Telescopically extensible supports are linked to the side legs of the support frame carrying the backrest of the length of fabric, which supports carry swivelable props for opening up a hood-like windshield which is pulled over the holder formed by the supports and the linked props and is pulled down against the foot part of the support frame. The disadvantageous aspect in this known chair configuration is however that the support frame needs to be provided with a comparatively heavy configuration in order to carry off the superimposed load. Furthermore, the opening of the hood-like windshield requires considerable handling efforts even when the windshield remains on the supporting frame because the holder for the windshield needs to be opened and latched separately from the chair.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is thus based on the object of providing a collapsible chair of the kind mentioned above in such a way that a light frame construction can be enabled without impairing the stability of the chair. Moreover, the windshield is to be opened together with setting up the frame.

This object is achieved by the invention in such a way that the frame structure comprises at least four support frames whose frame planes extending transversally to the base intersect each other in the region of a central axis, that the support frames form a tensioning bracket for the covering starting from the outside of the foot part, which bracket acts upon two directly adjacent tensioning brackets releasing an access opening between themselves, and that the foot parts and tensioning brackets are linked to each other in the region of the central axis.

As a result of this measure, the support frames which extend substantially perpendicular to the base of the chair can be swiveled outwardly in a fan-like manner from the collapsed storage position to a sitting position, so that the individual support frames which protrude radially in a star-like manner from the central axis extend in a plane substantially perpendicular to the base, which creating advantageous loading conditions as a precondition that the individual support frames can be produced in a comparatively light manner from wire for example without endangering the stability of the chair since the load of the chair can be distributed among at least four support frames. At least four support frames are necessary for opening up the hood-like windshield whose covering acts upon the support frames, which occurs by tensioning brackets starting from the outside of the foot part and being linked in an articulated manner at their upper ends in the region of the middle axis and therefore open up the covering in the circumferential direction during the erection of the collapsible chair. For this purpose, the covering is fastened to two directly adjacent tensioning brackets which open up an access opening between themselves and which are swiveled outwardly about the central axis during the erection of the collapsible chair until the covering is tensioned about the interposed tensioning brackets which are entrained by the covering during the outward swiveling of the tensioning brackets which are at the end side with respect to the covering. In the sitting position which is swiveled outwardly in a fan-like manner, the tensioning brackets which open up an access opening between themselves and are fixed at the end side with respect to the covering are fixed in their mutual pivoting position, which can occur in different ways. Especially simple constructional conditions are obtained when an elastic ribbon is used which connects the support frames of the tensioning brackets at the end side and which acts in the region of the foot parts on the support frames with the tensioning brackets at the end side and keeps the covering of the windshield tensioned under pretensioning in the circumferential direction. The seat which is made of a fabric for example can also be fastened with a fabric to the support frame in combination with a backrest and armrests in order to be brought to the sitting position together with the frame. It is also possible to provide a separate seat and backrest which is inserted into the opened frame. For the purpose of linked connection of the ends of the tensioning brackets averted from the foot part, said ends of the tensioning brackets can overlap each other and be joined with each other through a common swivel axis. Similarly, the foot parts of the support frame can comprise upper and lower radial legs which overlap each other and comprise a common swivel axis, so that a common swivel axis is obtained which corresponds to the middle axis of the chair. This means however that the support frames cannot lie flat on each other in the storage position, thus impairing the storage position of the collapsible chair. In order to remedy this, the frame-like foot parts can be held in a swivelable manner in bearing bodies with inside legs parallel to the central axis, so that with respect to the storage position the support frame can maintain a storage distance corresponding to the thickness of the frame legs transversally to the frame plane of the support frames resting on each other as a precondition for the support frames resting flat on each other when swiveled into the storage position.

Since the storage position of the individual support frames in the storage bodies generally require a larger storage distance from each other than the thickness of the frame legs, this means that the storage eyes of the storage bodies receiving the inside legs of the foot parts of the support frames need to be mutually offset not only transversally to the frame plane of the support frames resting in a flat manner on each other, but also in the direction of the support frames against each other, thus in practice producing a substantially V-shaped arrangement of the storage eyes.

Another possibility to ensure the support frames from resting on each other in a flat way in the swiveled-in storage position of the frame is obtained when the storage body are composed of mutually swivelable links which form the storage eyes for the inside legs and are swivelable against each other, so that said links are also swiveled along during the swiveling of the support frames against each other into the storage position and thus result in the mutual storage distance transversally to the frame plane of the support frames swiveled against each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The subject matter of the invention is shown in the drawing by way of example, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a chair in accordance with the invention in a schematic front view;

FIG. 2 shows said chair in a sectional view along line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a support frame of the frame structure in a side view;

FIG. 4 shows a sectional view along line IV-IV of FIG. 1, but in the folded storage position of the frame structure on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 5 shows a constructional variant of a chair in accordance with the invention in a longitudinal sectional view along line V-V of FIG. 6;

FIG. 6 shows a sectional view along line VI-VI of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 shows a top view of the chair according to FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 shows a sectional view according to FIG. 4 through the folded frame of the chair according to FIG. 5

FIG. 9 shows a view according to FIG. 1 of a further embodiment of a chair in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 10 shows a sectional view along line X-X of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 shows a sectional view along line XI-XI of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 shows a sectional view along line XII-XII of FIG. 11 on an enlarged scale in the sitting position of the frame, and

FIG. 13 shows view according to FIG. 12, but in the storage position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The chair according to the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 5 comprises a carrying frame structure which is composed of individual support frames 1. Said support frames form in accordance with FIG. 3 a foot part 2 and a tensioning bracket 3 protruding upwardly from the foot part 2 for a covering 4 which forms a hood-like windshield 4. The individual support frames 1 are joined to each other in an articulated manner in the region of a common central axis 5 extending transversally to the base. For this purpose, the upper ends of the tensioning brackets 3 overlap each other, so that they can be joined in an articulated manner by a common pivot axle 6. Similarly, the upper and bottom radial legs 7, 8 of the foot parts 2 are linked to each other via a common pivot axle 9 which extends coaxially to the pivot axle 6. The support frames 1 can be swiveled outwardly about the central axis 5 from a swiveled-in storage position in which the support frames 1 are swiveled to a stop against each other according to FIG. 4 to a sitting position in which the support frames 1 project from the central axis 5 in a star-like manner, as shown in FIG. 2. Since the covering 4 acts upon two directly adjacent tensioning brackets 3 a which open up an access opening 10 between themselves and encloses the other tensioning brackets 3 on the outside, the covering 4 connected with the tensioning brackets 3, 3 a is opened up during the fan-like outward swiveling of the support frames 1 in order to obtain a windshield enclosing the sitting area in a hood-like manner. The seat is formed by a seat rest 11 resting on the upper radial legs 8 of the foot parts 2, which seat rest needs to be removed for folding the chair. A backrest 12 which is fastened with the tensioning brackets 3 on the side of the chair opposite of the access opening 10 does not have to be removed as long as said backrest 12 can be folded inwardly along a film hinge 13. The mutual support of the support frames 1 in the circumferential direction occurs by means of the covering 4. The tensioning of the covering 4 and thus the sitting position can be secured sufficiently by an elastic tensioning means 14. For additional support of the tensioning brackets 3 which receive the backrest 12 in particular it is possible to provide a reinforcement, e.g. in the form of a length of fabric 15 which joins the tensioning brackets 3, 3 a with each other.

The embodiment of a chair according to FIGS. 5 to 8 differs from the one according to FIGS. 1 to 4 especially by the configuration of the foot parts 2 of the support frames 1. Said foot parts 2 form stiffened, closed frames with inside legs 16 which are parallel to the central axis 5 and which are joined to each other in an articulated manner via the storage body 17 in the region of the central axis 5. Said storage bodies 17 form in accordance with FIG. 8 storage eyes 18 for the inside legs 16 of the support frames 1 which in the illustrated storage position of the support frame 1 are offset in the direction towards a central plane 19 and transversally thereto, against which the support frames 1 are swiveled inwardly in the storage position. By offsetting the storage eyes 18 transversally to the central plane 19, it is ensured that the support frames 1 lie flat against each other parallel to the central plane 19, whereas the offset of the storage eyes in the direction of the central plane 19 enables the unhindered star-like fanning of the support frames 1 for the sitting position. In contrast to this, the inward swiveling of the support frames 1 against the central axis 19 is only possible up to an angular distance in the case of a linkage of the support frames 1 about a common pivot axle 9 according to FIG. 4. Instead of the storage eyes 18 it is also possible that the storage body 17 also comprises an oblong-shaped storage recess which jointly receives the inside legs 11 of the support frame 1. In this case too, a flat placement of the supporting frames 1 on each other parallel to the central plane 19 is ensured in the case of a substantially V-shaped progress of the storage recess of the storage body.

The embodiment according to FIGS. 5 to 9 also shows a cushion 11 which is connected with a backrest 12 and which is placed on the upper legs 8 of the foot parts 2 in the sitting position of the frame and rests with the backrest 12 in the region of the rear tensioning brackets 3. The loads of the backrest 12 are partly carried off via the cushion 11 through lateral brackets 20. Armrests can also be arranged on the lateral brackets 20. In order to cover the access opening 10 in the upper region in addition, the pivot axle 6 can additionally be provided with an umbrella part 22 which bridges the upper part of the access opening 10 and is adjacent to the covering 4, as is shown in FIGS. 5 and 7. Said umbrella 23 can also comprise swivelable tensioning brackets 23 in order to ensure collapsibility.

A further embodiment of a chair in accordance with the invention is shown in FIGS. 9 to 13. Although the foot parts 2 of the support frames 1 are also held with inside legs 16 in storage bodies 17, the storage bodies 17 are subdivided according to FIGS. 12 and 13 into mutually swivelable brackets 24 which allow a star-like opening of the support frames 1 in the sitting position of the carrying frame as shown in FIG. 12. In the storage position according to FIG. 13, however, they ensure that the support frames 1 rest flatly against each other parallel to the central plane 19.

The seat of the chair in the embodiment according to FIGS. 9 to 13 is formed by a sitting canvas 25 which is attached to the support frame 1 and which does not have to be removed during the folding of the carrying frame. The backrest 12 can also be formed by a length of fabric which is fastened to the tensioning brackets opposite the access opening 10 and acts via the lateral parts 26 on the front tensioning brackets 3 a in order to obtain a reinforcement of the covering 4 in the region of the backrest 12. Securing the sitting position can also be ensured, like in the other embodiments, by an elastic tensioning means between the support frames 1 which delimit the access opening 10, as is shown in the embodiments according to FIGS. 1 to 4. 

1-6. (canceled)
 7. A collapsible chair comprising a carrying frame comprising at least four support members pivotal between a storage position and a sitting position, and a covering forming a hood-shaped windshield in the sitting position, each one of the support members comprised of a foot part and a support part for the covering extending from an outside of the foot part towards a central axis, the foot parts and support parts of the support members having intersecting ends in the central axis, the foot parts and the support parts, respectively, being linked to each other in the central axis and being pivotal about the central axis, and two adjacent ones of the support parts defining an access opening therebetweer in the sitting position.
 8. The collapsible chair of claim 7, wherein the intersecting ends of the support parts of the support members overlap each other, further comprising a common pivot axle joining the overlapping ends.
 9. The collapsible chair of claim 7, wherein the foot parts of the support members have lower and upper legs having ends overlapping each other, further comprising common pivot axles joining the overlapping ends of the legs.
 10. The collapsible chair of claim 7, wherein the foot parts of the support members have inside legs extending parallel to the central axis, further comprising bearing bodies extending in the central axis and pivotally holding the inside legs.
 11. The collapsible chair of claim 10, wherein the bearing bodies have bearing eyes offset in a direction of the support frames, which extend parallel to each other in the storage position, and transversely thereto.
 12. The collapsible chair of claim 10, wherein the bearing bodies are comprised of brackets forming the bearing eyes and being pivotal against each other. 